International Criminal Court President Judge Philippe Kirsch to Lecture at Pace Law School March 28

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. – On March 28, 2005, Pace Law School will host its nineteenth annual Blaine Sloan Lecture on International Law presented by Judge Philippe Kirsch, president of the International Criminal Court at The Hague. Judge Kirsch’s lecture, “The International Criminal Court and the Enforcement of International Justice,”will be held at 5:00 p.m. in the Robert B. Fleming Moot Courtroom at Pace Law School in White Plains, with a reception immediately following.Admission to this lecture is free of charge and open to the public.

Judge Kirsch will speak about the creation of the International Criminal Court – an independent judicial institution with jurisdiction over persons for the most serious crimes of international concern, namely genocide; crimes against humanity; and war crimes – and the Court’s place within international criminal law. He will address the key features of the Court, its current operations, and its relationship with other actors.

Benjamin Ferencz, former Nuremberg Prosecutor, will introduce Judge Kirsch. Beginning in 1945 with his prosecution of war criminals during the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunal, the work of Ferencz has long explored the issues of international criminal justice and world peace.

Judge Kirsch was elected president of the International Criminal Court for a six-year period from the Western European and others Group of States (WEOG); he is assigned to the Appeals Division.

He is member of the Bar of the Province of Quebec and of the Canadian Council on International Law and was appointed Queen’s Counsel in 1988. He has extensive experience in the process of the establishment of the International Criminal Court, international humanitarian law, and international criminal law.

In 1998 Judge Kirsch served as chairman of the Committee of the Whole of the Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court. He was also chairman of the Preparatory Commission for the International Criminal Court (1999 to 2002). He served as chairman of the Drafting Committee of the International Conference on the Protection of War Victims (1993), chairman of the preparatory and subsequent Intergovernmental Working Groups of Government Experts on the Protection of War Victims (1993, 1995), and chairman of the Drafting Committee at the 26th and 27th International Conferences of the Red Cross and the Red Crescent (1995, 1999). He was chairman of the Canadian National Committee on Humanitarian Law (1998 – 1999) and a member of the Group of International Advisers to the International Committee of the Red Cross (2000 – 2003).

He has extensive experience in the development of international criminal law with regard to issues such as various acts of terrorism; suppression of unlawful acts against the safety of maritime navigation; unlawful acts of violence at airports serving international civil aviation; safety and security of UN and associated personnel; and the taking of hostages. He has written extensively on the International Criminal Court and other international legal issues.

Founded in 1976, Pace Law School is a New York Law School with a suburban campus in White Plains, N.Y., twenty miles north of New York City. Part of Pace University, the school offers the JD program for full-time and part-time day and evening students. Its postgraduate program includes the LLM and SJD degrees in Environmental Law and an LLM in Comparative Legal Studies. Pace has one of the nation’s top-rated Environmental Law programs and its Clinical Education program also is nationally ranked, offering clinics in domestic violence prosecution, environmental law, securities arbitration, criminal justice and disability rights. www.law.pace.edu